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Third nature: Climate change is both a blessing and a wake-up call

The Danish architecture firm, TREDJE NATUR, has co-articulated a new vision for our future urban living in a time with drastic climate changes. A new way of architecture, where cities and its human life are made part of curated and meaningful urban nature.

The Danish architecture firm, TREDJE NATUR, has co-articulated a new vision for our future urban living in a time with drastic climate changes. A new way of architecture, where cities and its human life are made part of curated and meaningful urban nature.

According to Rafn Thomsen, the global challenges related to climate changes and our demand for the creation and expansion of cities do not call for two different answers, but rather for the same solution.

Climate change is both a blessing and a wake-up call as it is mobilizing an understanding that our lifestyle is resulting in uncorrectable damage to our environment. At the same time, the growing density of the cities is creating new dreams of a different urban community for it surround residents.

It is these two factors that Tredje Natur is mixing in their architectural work and mission. They are advocating a new way of architecture, where cities and its human life are made part of curated and meaningful urban nature.

City and country come together in a "third nature" where the classic contradictions between city/nature, transportation/recreation, visible/invisible, /their/ours and problem/resource are dissolved and new urban communities created.

Green Natives

In the Seventies, they told us to turn off the tap when brushing our teeth, and we began to fear that acid rain would destroy nature. In the Eighties we followed the voyages of the original Rainbow Warrior, and learned that spray cans were eating the ozone layer like Pac-Man on speed. In the Nineties we bought pieces of the shrinking Amazon while a metallic forest of windmills arose. And ever since, we have been exposed to corporate shills and quislings, COPs, melting icebergs, rising oceans, and a gathering storm that is casting its shadow ever longer and blacker upon our tomorrow.

We are all Green Natives – people born and raised in a world aware of climate changes and our planet’s limited resources. But will we act on what we know?

Some of us have already begun.

TEDxCopenhagen have found an exceptional group of acting Green Natives – starting in their own backyards, these visionaries are creating a better world for all of us, spreading their ideas from their local communities to the global community.

Today, Green Natives are revolutionizing the ways we produce energy and food, and the ways we use natural and urban spaces. We call them green not only because they work for a greener future, but also because they are beginners, pioneers, and pathfinders – they are those who dare to think and act as others have not before them. Each and all of them have strong visions of a better world and a greener future, and a passion to share them with all of us— their fellow Green Natives.

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TED has created a program called TEDx. TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience.

Our event is called TEDxCopenhagen, where x = independently organized TED event. At our TEDxCopenhagen event, TEDTalks video and live speakers will combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group.

The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events, including ours, are self-organized.

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If you have questions, tips, tricks or anything else you want to share with us, you can send us an email at hello@tedxcopenhagen.dk